Frases de Charles Darwin (192 citações) | Citações e frases famosas

Frases de Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS foi um naturalista britânico que alcançou fama ao convencer a comunidade científica da ocorrência da evolução e propor uma teoria para explicar como ela se dá por meio da seleção natural e sexual. Esta teoria culminou no que é, agora, considerado o paradigma central para explicação de diversos fenômenos na biologia. Foi laureado com a medalha Wollaston concedida pela Sociedade Geológica de Londres, em 1859.

Darwin começou a se interessar por história natural na universidade enquanto era estudante de Medicina e, depois, Teologia. A sua viagem de cinco anos a bordo do brigue HMS Beagle e escritos posteriores trouxeram-lhe reconhecimento como geólogo e fama como escritor. Suas observações da natureza levaram-no ao estudo da diversificação das espécies e, em 1838, ao desenvolvimento da teoria da Seleção Natural. Consciente de que outros antes dele tinham sido severamente punidos por sugerir ideias como aquela, ele as confiou apenas a amigos próximos e continuou a sua pesquisa tentando antecipar possíveis objeções. Contudo, a informação de que Alfred Russel Wallace tinha desenvolvido uma ideia similar forçou a publicação conjunta das suas teorias em 1858.

Em seu livro de 1859, "A Origem das Espécies" , ele introduziu a ideia de evolução a partir de um ancestral comum, por meio de seleção natural. Esta se tornou a explicação científica dominante para a diversidade de espécies na natureza. Ele ingressou na Royal Society e continuou a sua pesquisa, escrevendo uma série de livros sobre plantas e animais, incluindo a espécie humana, notavelmente "A descendência do Homem e Seleção em relação ao Sexo" e "A Expressão da Emoção em Homens e Animais" .

Em reconhecimento à importância do seu trabalho, Darwin foi enterrado na Abadia de Westminster, próximo a Charles Lyell, William Herschel e Isaac Newton. Foi uma das cinco pessoas não ligadas à família real inglesa a ter um funeral de Estado no século XIX.

✵ 12. Fevereiro 1809 – 19. Abril 1882  •  Outros nomes Charles Robert Darwin
Charles Darwin photo

Obras

Charles Darwin: 192 citações209 Curtidas

Charles Darwin Frases famosas

“O homem que tem coragem de desperdiçar uma hora do seu tempo não descobriu o valor da vida.”

—  Charles Darwin

Variante: Um homem que ousa desperdiçar uma hora ainda não descobriu o valor da vida.

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“Enquanto meio de educação, a escola para mim foi um simples vazio.”

—  Charles Darwin

Darwin e a Ciência da evolução.

Citações de homens de Charles Darwin

“Não há diferenças fundamentais entre o homem e os animais nas suas faculdades mentais (…) os animais, como os homens, demonstram sentir prazer, dor, felicidade e sofrimento.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo (1871) - Cap. II: Comparação dos Poderes Mentais do Homem e Dos Animais Inferiores, pg 34.

“O homem ainda traz em sua estrutura fisica a marca indelével de sua origem primitiva.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
The Descent of Man (Darwin) Capítulo XXI (1871)

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Frases sobre animais de Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin frases e citações

“Conseguimos realizar nossos propósitos, economizando os minutos.”

—  Charles Darwin

Variante: Conseguimos realizar os nossos propósitos, economizando os minutos.

“(…) a ignorância mais freqüentemente gera confiança do que o conhecimento: são os que sabem pouco, e não os que sabem muito, que afirmam de uma forma tão categórica que este ou aquele problema nunca será resolvido pela ciência.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo (1871) - Volume 1, Introdução, página 3 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=16&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image.

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“Foi como confessar um assassinato.”

—  Charles Darwin

Em relação a exposição da Teoria da Evolução.
Revista Superinteressante Edição 240

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“Agora a psicologia se assentará sobre um novo alicerce.”

—  Charles Darwin

Psychology will be based on a new foundation
On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life - página 424 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=ez9KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA424, Charles Darwin - D. Appleton and company, 1869 - 432 páginas

“Não posso fingir saber sobre esses problemas abstrusos. O mistério do começo de todas as coisas é insolúvel por nós; e eu, pessoalmente, contento-me em permanecer um agnóstico.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, volume I, capítulo VIII: "Religião", página 313 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=331&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image

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Charles Darwin: Frases em inglês

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

—  Charles Darwin

volume I, chapter VI: "The Voyage", page 266 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=284&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image; letter to sister Susan Elizabeth Darwin (4 August 1836)
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Fonte: The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin

“I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Voyage of the Beagle

Fonte: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter XXI: "Mauritius To England" (second edition, 1845), pages 499-500 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=512&itemID=F14&viewtype=image
Contexto: I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have staid in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. … And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin.

“When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled (emphasis, again, not Darwin's).”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter XV: "Recapitulation and Conclusion", page 428 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=456&itemID=F391&viewtype=image, in the sixth (1872) edition
Contexto: Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled (emphasis, again, not Darwin's).

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.”

—  Charles Darwin

The earliest known appearance of this basic statement is a paraphrase of Darwin in the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a management sociologist at Louisiana State University. [[Megginson, Leon C., Lessons from Europe for American Business, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 1963, 44(1), 3-13, p. 4]] Megginson's paraphrase (with slight variations) was later turned into a quotation. See the summary of Nicholas Matzke's findings in "One thing Darwin didn't say: the source for a misquotation" http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/one-thing-darwin-didnt-say at the Darwin Correspondence Project. The statement is incorrectly attributed, without any source, to Clarence Darrow in Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988).
Misattributed

“Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, … I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

"Introduction", page 6 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=21&itemID=F373&viewtype=image
On the Origin of Species (1859)

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

volume I, "Introduction", page 3 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=16&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image
Fonte: The Descent of Man (1871)
Contexto: It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

“I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.”

—  Charles Darwin

volume II, chapter VII: "The 'Origin of Species'", pages 311-312 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=327&itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=image; letter http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-2814 to Asa Gray (22 May 1860)
"Ichneumonidæ" sometimes altered to "parasitic wasps" in paraphrases of this passage.
Paraphrased as "I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can." Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists (1916) page 197 http://books.google.com/books?id=nYArAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA198&f=false. <!-- Sometimes claimed that this appeared in Illustrated London News (21 April 1862), but a full search of every issue of Illustrated London News (1842–2003) through Gale Digital News Vault shows that this passage never appeared. -->
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Contexto: With respect to the theological view of the question. This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can. Certainly I agree with you that my views are not at all necessarily atheistical.

“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!”

—  Charles Darwin, livro More Letters of Charles Darwin

Letter to (Sept. 18, 1861) in Life of Henry Fawcett (1885) pp. 100-101 https://books.google.com/books?id=RjI7AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA100, and in More Letters of Charles Darwin: a Record of his Work in a Series of hitherto Unpublished Letters (1903) Vol. 1, p. 195 https://books.google.com/books?id=j0QeAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA195, ed., Sir Francis Darwin, Albert Charles Seward.
Other letters, notebooks, journal articles, recollected statements
Contexto: About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!

“Upon finding out we did not catch our animals with the lazo, they cried out, "Ah, then, you use nothing but the bolas:" the idea of an enclosed country was quite new to them.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Voyage of the Beagle

Fonte: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter VIII: "Excursion to Colonia del Sacramiento, etc." (second edition, 1845), entry for 19 November 1833, pages 147-148 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=160&itemID=F14&viewtype=image
Contexto: They expressed, as was usual, unbounded astonishment at the globe being round, and could scarcely credit that a hole would, if deep enough, come out on the other side. They had, however, heard of a country where there were six months light and six of darkness, and where the inhabitants were very tall and thin! They were curious about the price and condition of horses and cattle in England. Upon finding out we did not catch our animals with the lazo, they cried out, "Ah, then, you use nothing but the bolas:" the idea of an enclosed country was quite new to them. The captain at last said, he had one question to ask me, which he should be very much obliged if I would answer with all truth. I trembled to think how deeply scientific it would be: it was, "Whether the ladies of Buenos Ayres were not the handsomest in the world." I replied, like a renegade, "Charmingly so." He added, "I have one other question: Do ladies in any other part of the world wear such large combs?" I solemnly assured him that they did not. They were absolutely delighted. The captain exclaimed, "Look there! a man who has seen half the world says it is the case; we always thought so, but now we know it." My excellent judgment in combs and beauty procured me a most hospitable reception; the captain forced me to take his bed, and he would sleep on his recado.

“And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Voyage of the Beagle

Fonte: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter XXI: "Mauritius To England" (second edition, 1845), pages 499-500 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=512&itemID=F14&viewtype=image
Contexto: I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have staid in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. … And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin.

“He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory. For he may ask in vain where are the numberless transitional links which must formerly have connected the closely allied or representative species, found in the several stages of the same great formation.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter X: "On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings", pages 341-343 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=359&itemID=F373&viewtype=side
Contexto: p>I have attempted to show that the geological record is extremely imperfect; that only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care; that only certain classes of organic beings have been largely preserved in a fossil state; that the number both of specimens and of species, preserved in our museums, is absolutely as nothing compared with the incalculable number of generations which must have passed away even during a single formation; that, owing to subsidence being necessary for the accumulation of fossiliferous deposits thick enough to resist future degradation, enormous intervals of time have elapsed between the successive formations; that there has probably been more extinction during the periods of subsidence, and more variation during the periods of elevation, and during the latter the record will have been least perfectly kept; that each single formation has not been continuously deposited; that the duration of each formation is, perhaps, short compared with the average duration of specific forms; that migration has played an important part in the first appearance of new forms in any one area and formation; that widely ranging species are those which have varied most, and have oftenest given rise to new species; and that varieties have at first often been local (emphasis not Darwin's). All these causes taken conjointly, must have tended to make the geological record extremely imperfect, and will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory. For he may ask in vain where are the numberless transitional links which must formerly have connected the closely allied or representative species, found in the several stages of the same great formation. He may disbelieve in the enormous intervals of time which have elapsed between our consecutive formations; he may overlook how important a part migration must have played, when the formations of any one great region alone, as that of Europe, are considered; he may urge the apparent, but often falsely apparent, sudden coming in of whole groups of species. He may ask where are the remains of those infinitely numerous organisms which must have existed long before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited: I can answer this latter question only hypothetically, by saying that as far as we can see, where our oceans now extend they have for an enormous period extended, and where our oscillating continents now stand they have stood ever since the Silurian epoch; but that long before that period, the world may have presented a wholly different aspect; and that the older continents, formed of formations older than any known to us, may now all be in a metamorphosed condition, or may lie buried under the ocean.</p

“I have nothing to do with the origin of the primary mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VII: "Instinct", page 207 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=225&itemID=F373&viewtype=side
Contexto: I must premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the primary mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself. We are concerned only with the diversities of instinct and of the other mental qualities of animals within the same class.

“We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

Volume II, Chapter III, "Spread of Evolution - 1861-1862,") p. 175 https://books.google.com/books?id=BSdBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA175&dq=We+are+a+wretched+family+%26+ought+to+be+exterminated+++++darwin++scarlet+fever&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBGoVChMI0OmV8rHGxwIVA56ACh2YEAYF#v=onepage&q=We%20are%20a%20wretched%20family%20%26%20ought%20to%20be%20exterminated%20%20%20%20%20darwin%20%20scarlet%20fever&f=false. Letter to Asa Gray (1810-1888), (21 August 1862)
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Contexto: We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. (Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he [Darwin] took a house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton).

“Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter III: "Struggle For Existence", page 61 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=76&itemID=F373&viewtype=image
Contexto: Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection.

“I have attempted to show that the geological record is extremely imperfect”

—  Charles Darwin, livro On the Origin of Species (1859)

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter X: "On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings", pages 341-343 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=359&itemID=F373&viewtype=side
Contexto: p>I have attempted to show that the geological record is extremely imperfect; that only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care; that only certain classes of organic beings have been largely preserved in a fossil state; that the number both of specimens and of species, preserved in our museums, is absolutely as nothing compared with the incalculable number of generations which must have passed away even during a single formation; that, owing to subsidence being necessary for the accumulation of fossiliferous deposits thick enough to resist future degradation, enormous intervals of time have elapsed between the successive formations; that there has probably been more extinction during the periods of subsidence, and more variation during the periods of elevation, and during the latter the record will have been least perfectly kept; that each single formation has not been continuously deposited; that the duration of each formation is, perhaps, short compared with the average duration of specific forms; that migration has played an important part in the first appearance of new forms in any one area and formation; that widely ranging species are those which have varied most, and have oftenest given rise to new species; and that varieties have at first often been local (emphasis not Darwin's). All these causes taken conjointly, must have tended to make the geological record extremely imperfect, and will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory. For he may ask in vain where are the numberless transitional links which must formerly have connected the closely allied or representative species, found in the several stages of the same great formation. He may disbelieve in the enormous intervals of time which have elapsed between our consecutive formations; he may overlook how important a part migration must have played, when the formations of any one great region alone, as that of Europe, are considered; he may urge the apparent, but often falsely apparent, sudden coming in of whole groups of species. He may ask where are the remains of those infinitely numerous organisms which must have existed long before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited: I can answer this latter question only hypothetically, by saying that as far as we can see, where our oceans now extend they have for an enormous period extended, and where our oscillating continents now stand they have stood ever since the Silurian epoch; but that long before that period, the world may have presented a wholly different aspect; and that the older continents, formed of formations older than any known to us, may now all be in a metamorphosed condition, or may lie buried under the ocean.</p

“Disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", page 105 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=118&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image
The Descent of Man (1871)

“The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive, is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", page 101 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=114&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image
The Descent of Man (1871)

“Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Fonte: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”

—  Charles Darwin

Fonte: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VII: "Instinct", page 244 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=262&itemID=F373&viewtype=image
Fonte: The Origin of Species

“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities… still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

volume II, chapter XXI: "General Summary and Conclusion", page 405 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=422&itemID=F937.2&viewtype=image
(Closing paragraph of the book.)
The Descent of Man (1871)
Contexto: Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

“Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.”

—  Charles Darwin, livro A Descendência do Homem e Seleção em Relação ao Sexo

volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", pages 100-101 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=113&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image
The Descent of Man (1871)
Contexto: As man advances in civilisation, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races. If, indeed, such men are separated from him by great differences in appearance or habits, experience unfortunately shews us how long it is before we look at them as our fellow-creatures. Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions. It is apparently unfelt by savages, except towards their pets. How little the old Romans knew of it is shewn by their abhorrent gladiatorial exhibitions. The very idea of humanity, as far as I could observe, was new to most of the Gauchos of the Pampas. This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as this virtue is honoured and practised by some few men, it spreads through instruction and example to the young, and eventually through public opinion.